This invention relates generally to vessels having pouring spouts, and is particularly suitable for cookware having pouring spouts adapted to allow the transferring of liquids, sauces, and other foods contained within the cookware.
Because the disclosed invention is particularly suitable for cookware, the invention will be disclosed in relation to that exemplary application. However, it should be noted that the invention is not specifically limited to that application, as it is applicable to vessels other than those intended for kitchen or domestic use.
Cooking vessels used for heating and cooking liquids of varying viscosities containing a wide range of relatively solid food particles suspended therein are in daily use throughout the world. Upon completion of heating the contents of the vessel, it is frequently desirable to precisely control the rate and direction of flow of the contents into another vessel for additional preparation, cooling, storing, serving, or disposal. Additionally, when cooking meat products wherein fat is rendered, or liquified fat or oil is used as a cooking medium, it is common to pour the excess fat or oil into another vessel for future use or disposal.
The prior art is replete with vessels having pour spouts to aid in the transferring of the contents of a first vessel into a second receiving vessel. However, prior art vessels share a common shortcoming in that when the contents are poured out of the first vessel, the resulting stream is not geometrically constant and tends to exit the vessel at varying rates. For example, the contents of the vessel would lap the outside of the vessel if the pouring rate was too slow, and conversely, if the pouring rate was too fast, the contents would exit the vessel in a non-uniform, waterfall-like geometry resulting in poor directional and flow rate control. Such stream characteristics resulted in undesired dripping, spillage, and possibly overfilling the receiving vessel. The spillage and dripping occurring from the lack of control when pouring contents out of a vessel not only forms an inconvenience to the user, but in some extreme cases may provide a hazard to an inattentive user when transferring hot oil or fats.
Thus, there is a need for vessels having a pouring spout that provides a uniform geometric flow pattern regardless of the particular pouring rate of the contents exiting the vessel.
There also remains a need for vessels having a pouring spout that essentially eliminates unwanted lapping of liquids onto the exterior of the vessel while pouring the contents of the vessel.
There is a further need for vessels having a pour spout that essentially eliminates unwanted dripping of liquids from the spout after pouring from the vessel.